Vineyard English July 2013

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Vineyard Magazine English edition July 2013

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8-9Glimpses of Israel Timnah Park,

Negev

Published by David House Fellowship Inc. The Vineyard July 2013

Isaiah 5:7 “for the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the House of Israel”.

2 The New Revelation • 6 Green is the New Tourism • 10 The Miracle of Jordan 14 Taking Public Transport?

Lake and recreational area

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more into the halls of justice than into the green pastures of love, doesn’t it?

One who has been described as the “prince of Bible expositors” (Dr G Campbell Morgan) has declared that “the word love is a lonely stranger in the first four books” of the Bible.

My friends, he is right. Moreover, he is statistically right! In the whole 4,890 verses of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, there are only nineteen tender touches actually expressed by the actual word “love”, and where it is used I discover it to be almost entirely restricted or limited to the state or condition of mere human affection for family, friends, female, or food!

On the admittedly higher plane of reciprocal love between God and man I find only two references and these appear like two lonely index arrows. One is in Exodus (Exodus 20:6) pointing from God to man where God declares, as a principle, His love-attitude to those who love Him; the other is in Leviticus (Leviticus 19:18, 34), where love to one’s neighbour is Divinely commanded.

In Genesis what I may call the love-flow between God and man is implied but once (Genesis 29:32); in Exodus it is once stated as a principle; in Leviticus it is not stated at

all as interflowing between God and man, but merely as a dutiful attitude between man and man. When we reach the fourth book, Numbers, the book of the wilderness, the book of futility and failure, it is poetic that love is not mentioned once – neither of God to man, of man to God, or of man to man. Not that God’s love cannot be detected. Don’t be deceived on this point. God’s love can be detected. (e.g. Genesis 29:32)

However, love is indeed a lonely verbal stranger in the first four books. Now, since this is so, is it not therefore surely reasonable to expect this phenomenon to persist through the pages of the fifth and final book of Torah, the Law? Why, its very name Deuteronomy – meaning repetition of the Law – scarcely invites hope to the contrary. Is it not true that the very words “LAW” and “LOVE” invoke in our minds ideas quite divorced from each other?

But, my friends, I have a real surprise for you. Indeed, you may find this message full of surprises, and here is the first one, for our rapturous revelation of Divine Love is, contrary to expectations, securely embedded in Divine Law; yes, indeed, Divine Law is – as it were – the costly setting from which blazes this gem of Divine Love. Let me illustrate.

MY DEAR FRIENDS, in the Talmud it is recorded that in the ancient days of Israel, on the Sabbath, the outgoing Temple watch in Jerusalem would greet the incoming watch with these words:

“May He Who put His Name on this house, put among you love, brotherhood, peace and friendship”! (Berakot, 12a)

Now it will not have escaped your attention that in this affable greeting love is the leader. The English Jewish novelist, Grace Aguilar (1816 – 1847) writes:

“Love is the voice of God. Love is the rule of heaven!” (Vale of Cedars, 1850, Ch. 34, p. 219)

Now frankly! Is this mere novelist’s nonsense or is it a magnificent fact?

Would you grant me the favour and privilege of your partnership as I bring to you joyous proof that Grace Aguilar was expressing fact, blessed fact?

Since I accept the Bible as the supreme revelation of and from God, it is to the Holy Scriptures I must ask you to turn for this demonstration.

In the Hebrew of the Tenach, the so-called Old Testament, are three principal Hebrew

word-roots from which is derived the concept, the idea, of love. The root (ahov) is the most common, appearing at least 237 times throughout the Tenach, whilst (hashoq) is found approximately 15 times and (havov) but once.

The root ahov is best translated into English by the simple word “love”. The root hashoq is a little more intricate and means, basically, “to join together,” “to cling” and, of course, hence, “to live.” The third Hebrew root havov conveys the idea of covering or hiding, as for instance, hiding or shielding in one’s bosom in order to protect, and hence it is an action actuated by love. Now, having armed you with these three principal Hebrew word-roots, let us try an interesting experiment.

Suppose I were to place in your hands right now a copy of the Hebrew Bible. To which section or book in our Holy Scriptures would you turn to discover the major expression of love, particularly God’s love as encased in the very words of the novelist I quoted earlier?

Would you turn to the Torah, the Law? To the Neviim, the Prophets? To the Psalms, perhaps? Well, at first thought, certainly not to the Law for what has Law to do with Love. Surely the word Law leads our thoughts rather

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points to the limitation of the Divine choice to Jacob’s seed. Abraham Ibn Ezra (b. 1092) wisely observes that had the original Hebrew text employed the plural form another eight peoples, as well as the Hebrews, might have been Scripturally regarded as being chosen people — Divinely chosen to fulfil a Divine commission.

Now, let us learn again from another princely expositor — Moses.

Lifting the Sacred Record from the unhonored grave of Israel’s immediate past generation, the generation that came out of Egypt, Moses sweeps aside the curtain of current ignorance from his contemporaries, and into the illumined ark of their understanding he reverently deposits the perfect Law of the Lord.

The new generation, about to enter the Promised Land under Joshua, is also about to undergo the new experience of the acquisition by Divine grant of a new possession, the Land of Canaan. Both their faith and their reason will be tested; therefore they are given a new revelation of God Who alone must be the Object of their faith and the Answer to their reason.

The great lesson of Devarim, Deuteronomy, and hence the last lesson of Chumash, the Five Books, is therefore poetically enough, God’s LOVE related to but not opposed to — but rather embedded in — God’s LAW.

One final revelation. Israel is about to pass over into the Land of Promise — now listen —

UNCIRCUMCISED! Yes,indeed! Without the ot brit kodesh, the “Sign of the Holy Covenant”!

In this remarkable manner God reveals that Canaan was a gift of Divine grace, not a reward for human merit through Law-observance.

Deuteronomy, this precious book, thus reveals a Divine attitude to man that has remained unchanged down the ages and is explicitly declared in our Jewish New Covenant, the New Testament, in this clear statement:

“The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Adonainu Yeshua HaMashiach.” (Romans 6:23)

May we find anew God’s love as expressed so poetically and beautifully not only in the Book of Deuteronomy but also in the Person of our great and glorious Messiah-Redeemer.

Dr Lawrence Duff-Forbes (1900-1964) Founding Director of David House Fellowship Inc.

This article is an extract from the very popular radio series, “Treasures From Tenach”, which are also transcribed. Both audio (click MP3 tab, then “129NewRevelation.mp3”, and transcriptions are available for free download at www.thevineyard.org.au .

I remember, many years ago, travelling by automobile in the northern areas of Victoria, in Australia. I had left a town called Ouyen and was on my way to Mildura, on the great river Murray, and in those days I had to pass through a very sandy area.

Mile after mile I travelled over undulating yellow sand dunes when, suddenly and utterly without warning, as I came to the crest of another dune, a green and glowing glory literally burst into sight. I had entered those vast areas irrigated by the river and the town that I was approaching had flung out far before me a green carpet of welcome. It was an unforgettable sight.

And, so it proves to be as we leave the wilderness of Numbers and enter the domains of Deuteronomy. Yes indeed, we approach our theme of love, not on the feathery cushion of feeling necessarily, but on the flinty causeway of figures. Statistics!

In my Hebrew Bible I have traced no less than twenty-seven references to “love” in Deuteronomy. Twenty-three are from the Hebrew root ahov, three from hashoq, and one from havov.

Of the twenty-seven references to love in Deuteronomy, only six relate to love on the purely human plane, whereas God’s love to man absorbs nine references, and man’s enjoined love to God twelve references.

To put this another way, the love-relationship between God and man absorbs three-

quarters of the love references in Devarim (Deuteronomy).

Moreover, whereas the common word ahov is used of both man and God, the more intensely tender words — only four times employed — are thrice used to describe the quality of God’s love. Now those statistics were worth finding. Don’t you think so?

Here, for instance, are some typical quotations:

“The Eternal did not set His love (hashoq) upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people — for you were the fewest of all peoples — but because the Eternal loved (ahov) you ...” (Deuteronomy 7:7,8a)

“Only the Eternal had a delight (hashoq) in your fathers to love (ahov) them ...” (Deuteronomy 10:15a)

“... but the Eternal your God(s) turned the curse into a blessing unto you, because the Eternal your God(s) loved (ahov) you.” (Deuteronomy 23:6b; English tr. 23:5b)

“Yes, He loves (havov) the peoples ...” (Deuteronomy 33:3a)

“And because He loved (ahov) your fathers, and chose his seed after him ...” (Deuteronomy 4:37)

I have made a literal translation of Deuteronomy 4:37, last quoted, to show the remarkable use in the Hebrew text of the expression “his seed after him.” This

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As we become more conscious of the size of our ecological footprints, it’s good to know that in Israel we can go green in our leisure options as well. At Essene Farm, in Even-Sappir near Jerusalem raw-food cuisine is served …

Ecotourism in the Negev desert is rapidly expanding in parallel with the region’s overall development. Zimmerbus, created by Eyal and Avigail Hirshfeld from old vehicles headed for the scrap heap, is one especially outside-the-box destination.

“The idea came out of need,” Eyal Hirshfeld tells ISRAEL21c. “We brought one bus to refurbish as a guest room for friends and family because we didn’t have enough space in our house.”

The Hirshfelds and their children covered the metal shell with the natural building material adobe (made from sand, clay, water and organic material) and roofed it with date-palm leaves. Inside, it was outfitted with as many natural materials as possible. “People liked the idea and suggested making it into a zimmer,” says Hirshfeld.

They purchased and renovated two more buses – one a ‘concertina’ model large enough for families – and went into business. A recycling system using wastewater from the zimmerbuses to irrigate an organic garden is planned, along with an organic vineyard.

The abundance of ‘green’ lodging, organic eateries, biking and hiking trails, bird-watching sites, ecological study tours, and more, made Israel the perfect host for the fall’s eco-tourism conference sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The greening of Israel’s tourism industry is an ongoing priority, according to Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov. The ministry’s dedicated

and informative site, Travelgreenisrael.com, complements its two-year promotion, ‘Israel: One Hundred Years of Green.’ The campaign is marked by a series of projects in cooperation with Eco & Sustainable Tourism Israel, the Nature and Parks Authority, Jewish National Fund, and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.

For both domestic and foreign travelers, green accommodation in Israel varies from campgrounds to desert huts, to upscale resorts offering natural therapies and healthful cuisine.

Green options are growing

One of the newest arrivals to the ecotourism scene is Zohar Katzir’s Essene Farm in Even-Sappir, a small mountaintop village just west of Jerusalem.

In a few months, Katzir will open guest lodges roofed with recycled tiles, insulated with thick straw bales, and connected to biological purification pools for waste. Meanwhile, guests arrive on a daily basis to learn natural personal hygiene and organic and ‘permaculture’ gardening techniques, and to explore the forest and springs below. “We wish to see people developing spiritually through love, and work closer to Mother Nature,” Katzir tells ISRAEL21c.

Tuesday evenings, Essene serves up raw-food cuisine in its mud-and-straw main building outfitted with a gray-water purification pond and a water-free compost commode.

Eco-resorts dot the country

Some of Israel’s green lodging options, like Essene Farm and Herzliya’s energy-conserving Sharon Resort Hotel, are close to major population centers. Others are more rural, such as Cabins in the Mist in the Golan Heights,

with its hand-built, ‘technology-free’ wooden cabins surrounded by organic cherry orchards.

While ecotourist facilities are popping up all over the Negev Desert and the Arava, in the Great Rift Valley, most are situated in Israel’s lush Galilee region.

Two of the many Upper Galilee eco-resorts are Vered HaGalil, where guests can experience alternative therapies such as reiki and energy healing, and the Schnabel Zimmer (country inn), an award-winning site featuring five cabins in a permaculture environment with an accompanying vegetable garden, goat pen and chicken coop.

In the Western Galilee, there’s Back to Nature via the Bible, an ecological village offering opportunities to learn about medicinal plants and herbs, stomp grapes, grind grain, and crush olives for oil. And at Indigo Guest House, an environmentally mindful B&B, you’ll be served meals from locally-grown organic ingredients irrigated with recycled gray water from the lodges.

One of the Lower Galilee’s niche ecotourist spots is the HooHa Cyclists House. Here, accommodation and services are geared specifically to those touring Israel atop two-wheelers. And there are bound to be many more of these as the Tourism Ministry begins investing more than NIS 100 million in a 3,000-mile network of new bike paths, including a national trail. Two major cycling paths near and around Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) are under construction.

“This infrastructure will also make Israel an attractive destination for cyclists from around the world and a marketing program will be prepared accordingly,” Misezhnikov recently announced.

Voluntourism

Adventurous ‘voluntourists’ who want to explore the country’s eco-system through an organized program have several options. GoEco, established in 2005, offers a large selection of projects from coral reef conservation in the Red Sea and eco-building in the Arava to wildlife conservation at a biblical nature reserve.

At Kibbutz Lotan in the Arava, voluntourists are housed in straw-bale-and-mud geodesic domes and accompany kibbutzniks in tasks such as organic gardening, alternative/natural building, maintaining nature trails, arranging educational workshops, and working in the Lotan migratory bird reserve.

Eco-tourist sites to visit

Ecologically-minded day trips are another option as Israel invests in new projects such as Ayalon Park’s 75-acre recycling plant atop a former garbage dump near Tel Aviv. Visitors can watch household and industrial refuse, garden debris, and corrugated paper as it’s transformed into electricity, clean irrigation and washing water, and agricultural fertilizer. In the Visitors Center decorated with recycled art, kids can take part in hands-on workshops.

The Tourism Ministry has invested millions of shekels since the early 1990s in the development of a tourist infrastructure at Lake Agmon in the northern Hula Valley, a critical region for migrating birds and other wildlife. Most recently, the Ministry and Jewish National Fund each invested NIS 700,000 (about $194,000) to construct a southern observation point on the lake. This newest eco-tourist attraction is expected to open within a few months.

Abigail Klein Leichman (21 December 2010) Courtesy Israel 21C (www.israel21c.org)

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glimpses of ISRAEL glimpses of ISRAEL glimpses of ISRAEL glimpses of ISRAEL

Background photo: lake and recreational area

Inset left to right: restaurant and tourist centre; spectacular rock formations; Tabernacle replica.

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My dear friends, our Hebrew poet, Nephtali Herz Imber (1856-1909) has written these lines:

“Let your spirits’ desires

For the land of our sires

Eternally burn,

From the foe to deliver

Our own holy river

To Jordan return.” (Watch on the Jordan)

If ever a river has a valid claim to such a classification as “holy” it is the River Jordan, and if ever a people possess a valid claim to ownership of that river it is the people of Israel.

A study of the third and fourth chapters of the Biblical book entitled Joshua should establish this thesis. Of course, to those who deny the Divine inspiration of the Bible my authority will make little appeal, I grant you; however, to such I ask leave to tender a word of counsel.

At one of our universities the question was asked — “How far can a dog run into a forest?” Very few obtained the required answer yet, really, it lies upon the surface of the question. You see, a dog can only run half-way into a forest; beyond that point it is running out of it!

I suggest we might well apply this proposition to the Holy Scriptures. Apart from persons weighted by a mental bias either way, it is my conviction that any incredulity dissipates in proportion to the quantity of Biblical ground covered. It is also far too little realized that the flow of modern scientific and archaeological discovery has found itself anticipated by the Biblical record.

But does someone object to the element of miracle in the Scriptures. Why should there be any reluctance to the acknowledgement that God can and has instituted processes and events of a character not within the regular knowledge or experience of mankind?

Many are handicapped in their acceptance of the miraculous by the delusion that the so-called “laws of nature” are fixed, unchangeable and eternal and cannot be modified or reversed.

But I appeal to these very same “laws of nature” to demonstrate the unreliability of such a concept. As far as our earth is concerned, what more universal “Law of Nature” could we have than the Law of Gravitation? But this law of gravitation is not universally obeyed in nature. As a matter of fact, if it were, we would all be poisoned. Let me explain.

Carbonic acid gas is injurious to human health and if it obeyed the universal law of gravitation it would form a thick layer all round the globe. To avoid this, what we may well call a miracle has been Divinely provided within the alleged unchangeable laws of nature, for carbonic acid gas and other noxious gases disobey gravitation and rise to the top of the highest mountains. Another miracle within nature is the gas hydrogen which, although twenty-two times lighter than carbonic acid gas, nevertheless descends and can be found in the deepest mines man ever dug into the earth.

Perhaps I should speak of what I may call “dormant laws” in nature which only become operative at the instigation of man or through mishap, the probability of which has been intelligently anticipated and provided for

in nature. For instance, if a man breaks a limb, a dormant law becomes operative and a greater secretion of phosphate of lime proceeds to the fracture and unites it and in some cases actually creates a ferule of bony matter around it. But for the accident the very existence of this dormant law would have been unsuspected and the first man experiencing the first fracture would declare a miracle had been wrought when this “dormant law” of repair became operative.

However, I do not intend this message to resolve itself into a defence of the incident of miracles in Biblical history and revelation; rather I wish to confront you with a memorable miracle at the River Jordan in the day when Moses’ successor, Joshua, led the Children of Israel across the river into the Promised Land.

The name “Jordan” means “the descender” given to the river because of its amazingly rapid descent from its source at the foot of Mount Hermon to its terminus in the Dead Sea 1286 feet below sea level. It is unbelievably sinuous in its labyrinthine windings and twistings and it weirdly boasts three banks, the largest being at the water’s edge. This bank frequently overflows in the springtime because of the melting of the snow on Hermon. The second and wider bank is a regular jungle of vegetation giving way to a third or upper bank which overhangs the river.

In the vicinity of Jericho the Jordan Valley is about fourteen miles wide, and on the east side of the river, Joshua, and the Children of Israel were camped in the plain of Shittim, all ready now to cross over into the Promised Land.

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The great and prophesied day had arrived! The Eternal God Who had first granted the promise declared to Joshua: “This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, ye shall stand still in the Jordan.” (Joshua 3:7, 8)

There was both rhythm and reason in the miracle to follow. It was “the tenth day of the first month” (Joshua 4:19). On that day, forty years earlier, Israel had taken the lamb for the Pesach sacrifice before the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 12:3). As Rabbi Levi said, “Their taking the paschal lamb in Egypt stood them in good stead at the Jordan.” (Pesikta)

Doubtless the significance of this anniversary day would be impressed upon the consciousness of the host of Israel as they advanced towards their objective. The tribes who were to have their allotments west of Jordan were reinforced by forty thousand selected soldiers from Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, which would leave some 70,580 from these three tribes to guard the eastern territory. (Numbers 26:7, 18, 34)

The Ark of the Covenant containing the Decalogue was usually located in the centre of the camp (cf. Numbers 2:17) but now, proudly borne by the priests, it led the hosts of Israel westward. A reverent distance of some 2000 cubits, equal to about 1000 yards, separated Israel’s army from the ark. This interval was equal to the extent of the permitted Sabbath day’s journey.

To those Israelites to whom the desert had so recently been their sandy surroundings, the river, silver-gleaming in the sunshine, and with banks overflowing, was itself a miracle. But a greater miracle was immediately to follow.

From the separating distance of about half a

mile, the Israelites looked down and behold! When the feet of those that bore “the ark of the Eternal, the Lord of all the Earth” (Joshua 3:11, 13) came to rest in the river, the Jordan split in two! “The waters coming from upstream stood still, forming a single solid mass, reaching northward from Adamah, as far as the fortress of Zarethan. And the waters going downstream to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off; and the people passed over right against Jericho. Whereupon the priests that carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Eternal stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of Jordan; and all Israel passed over on dry land, until the entire people had crossed over Jordan.” (Joshua 3:16, 17)

The famous archaeologist, Dr. Nelson Glueck, B.A., LL.D, Ph.D., has declared that Joshua 3:16 was meant to be taken literally. (The River Jordan, Jewish Publication Society, 1946)

Personally, I am very content indeed to acknowledge Divine interposition in this incident for, as I said, there was both rhythm and reason in it. The generation of Israel at Jericho, you will remember, had not been sufficiently mature in age to have seen the miraculous parting of the waters of the Red Sea by the uplifted rod of Moses. Of course, Caleb and Joshua had seen it (I use “seen” in the sense of understanding), but this generation needed the attestation and encouragement for the “going in” as much as the earlier generation had needed similar Divine evidence for the “going out.” There was a big task ahead for Israel to accomplish. The battle against heathenism was impending.

Now just a final word for any who might imagine that the task of suddenly cutting off the waters of Jordan during a flood time was a task too big for the Almighty Omnipotent God of Creation.

Will it come as a shock to learn that this same thing has happened to this same river on at least three separate occasions in history since the days of Joshua? The Arab historian Nuwairi records that on December 8 in the year 1267 of the Common Era, the entire riverbed, right opposite Jericho, became dry owing to a landslip higher up. For sixteen hours the flow of water down the riverbed was stopped.

A similar occurrence is recorded in 1906, whilst so recently as July 1927, at the very locality of Adamah mentioned in the Scripture verse quoted earlier; an earthquake caused a great landslide which blocked the river for twenty-one hours. (cf. Joshua-Judges of J. Garstang, 1931, pp. 136-138)

View it as a Providential concatenation of time, place, and circumstance; or as a Providential direct interposition, the crossing of Jordan was a miracle. No wonder the poet calls Jordan “our own holy river.”

Dr Lawrence Duff-Forbes (1900-1964) Founding Director of David House Fellowship Inc.

This article is an extract from the very popular radio series, “Treasures From Tenach”, which are also transcribed. Both audio (click MP3 tab, then “156MiracleOfJordan.mp3”, and transcriptions are available for free download at www.thevineyard.org.au .

It is similar in function to the wildly popular traffic-bashing application Waze, made by an Israeli company that uses public data from drivers to help steer you away from logjams on the way to work or play.

Indeed, Waze inspired the creation of Moovit, says Wyron, and one of the executives from Waze is on the Moovit board.

“The popularity of Waze shows how powerful the crowd can be in generating real-time data,” says Wyron. “It was inspiring to our founders and opened their eyes to the powers of the crowd.”

Taking on the globe one bus route at a time

But Moovit has a different agenda. Wyron explains: “Waze is an amazing tool [for] daily commuters who know how to get to work but are using the app to drive. We are targeting a different audience.

“When you are driving in a car, there’s no schedule. On Moovit, from Day 1 we can offer a complete schedule-based solution with all of the info according to the schedule in every market we work in. We work to coordinate with the public transport authorities and

many of them already have real-time data feeds to monitor their bus fleets using GPS. We cooperate with transit operators to provide that data to the Moovit users.”

Moovit was founded in 2011, and launched in Israel in March 2012, and in international cities six months later, starting with Madrid. It is now available in cities across the globe, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Boston, San Diego and about 10 more US cities. It’s been a big hit in San Paolo, Brazil.

The data Moovit collects can be a two-way street, providing added value to transport operators by revealing details about user behavior so that more efficient routes and schedules might be planned in the future.

Wyron expects that Moovit will always be free for the end-user.

Karin Kloosterman (7 May 2013) Courtesy Israel 21C (www.israel21c.org)

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A new Israeli app aims to revolutionize the way we get about on public transportation.

Getting the public more involved in public transportation is a motto of the new Israeli app developed by Moovit. The 20-person company based in Nes Ziona is financed with more than enough bus fare: Some $3.5 million is fueling the company that wants to change the way you ride the bus, take the train and get to point A to point B using the heel-toe-express.

For the 650,000 users already subscribed in 30 cities worldwide, with a majority of them in New York City and Los Angeles, change is already afoot.

Moovit is a free app download that is kept open on your smartphone when you ride the bus, train or subway. It does not work underground, but reconnects once the user surfaces.

“We accompany you throughout your journey from your home in Manhattan, let’s say, to your destination in Brooklyn. If you are not sure where the bus stop is, we will give you an alert and offer walking directions from the point you exit the bus,” says Amy Wyron, marketing manager of Moovit.

Air conditioning on, or too crowded?

Based on Open Street Maps, the Wikipedia of maps, Moovit is built on data collected by transportation companies — usually bus schedules, and sometimes real-time GPS data from buses on the move.

Overlaid on that is information supplied by people logged on to the Moovit app, which is paired to the Internet connectivity inside your smartphone. When people are actually riding the bus with the app open, Moovit passively collects speed and location data, to give real-time info to the user. People can also choose to send reports about whether the bus is crowded, the air conditioning is working or the train’s Wi-Fi is down.

With all this data together, Moovit can suggest which bus or train to take in order to arrive at the destination faster. It can provide alternate routes, alert you when you need to get off, and guide you every step of the way toward your destination.

Connected with open-source data, users build the app as they go, making the public transportation experience more efficient and less random.

Taking Public Transport? Israel’s Moovit App GetsYouThereFaster.

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, may they prosper

who love you.” Psalm 122:6

David House Fellowship Inc.publishers of THE VINEYARD magazine.AIM: to express Christian Love to the house of Israel

and to spread universally Messianic truth.

The VineyardVol 55, No 6July 2013

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